FREMONT, Calif. (AP) — A sting operation targeting smash-and-grab auto burglary rings in the San Francisco Bay Area has led to 10 arrests and the recovery of about 2,000 electronic devices worth more than $1.5 million, authorities said.
Santa Clara County prosecutors and Fremont police officials announced Thursday that they seized nearly $250,000 in cash and several luxury cars they believe were purchased with profits from cellphone, laptops and other electronics stolen from people's cars over the past several months.
They charged 11 people in connection with rings that sell the stolen electronics to overseas buyers and arrested all but one suspect who led officers in a car chase in Oakland and got away.
Some of the suspects were arrested when investigators caught them move items into a rented minivan in the parking lot of a Gilroy outlet mall. Detectives found over 300 laptops in the two cars in Gilroy, and in follow up investigations, located two storage units and a moving truck in Oakland, where more than 1,500 laptops, phones, cameras and other devices were found.
Authorities said nearly 550 of the recently recovered devices were found at a San Jose business named iTek Mobile Care, where they suspect two people were wiping stolen laptops of the owner's personal data and ultimately shipping them to buyers in Vietnam.
The San Jose Mercury News reports the operation was the latest one focused on stopping brokers of stolen goods from illegally selling electronics overseas. Thousands more devices worth millions, along with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash had been seized by authorities in two prior stings in the Bay Area.
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